Cape Town - After agreeing to scrap the R300 “registration fee” for hostel admission, struggling parents of pupils at no-fee Bastiaanse Secondary School, in Leeu Gamka, said the school governing body had done an about-turn and were demanding the fee be paid for pupils to be placed.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) confirmed that schools may not charge fees such as a registration fee, a deposit, re-admission or pre-admission testing fees, or any other fees at the time of application.
On Tuesday, Central Karoo community activist Ernest Beyers said he was “livid” with the school, as parents were already struggling.
“I intend on handing in a complaint against the school for going against a decision of the WCED. The school and its governing body is intimidating our parents to still pay compulsory fees after it was communicated that they would not pay any of the fees which the school wanted to have paid. This included the payment of books needed for the academic year.”
Attempts to get comment from the school and hostel were unsuccessful by deadline.
The matter came to light after ActionSA was alerted to challenges in the area, and intervened.
The party’s Michelle Wasserman visited the school. “(We) wrote to the WCED (Beaufort West District) setting out the problems faced by these Leeu Gamka parents. (We) pointed out that, if there were a high school in Leeu Gamka, there would be no need for the children to go to hostels in other towns. Despite repeated requests from the Leeu Gamka community for high school facilities, the (WCED) has declined to allocate the necessary funding.
Learners from Leeu Gamka are left with no choice but to go to hostel and attend a high school far from their homes and families,” she said.
ActionSA’s letter to the WCED also requested that pupils be provided with regular transport between Leeu Gamka and the hostels at no charge.
“WCED responded to ActionSA’s request for free, regular transport for learners by saying the district is applying for a route to transport learners for a specified number of trips per quarter, but that the approval thereof could not be guaranteed as this will result in a ‘double subsidy’ for these learners,” Wasserman said.
WCED spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, said the department was engaging with the school and a subsidy for transport was in process.
“An application by the district has been submitted to deviate from the (learner transport) policy in this instance and allow for the transportation of learners to and from the hostel at certain times of the term.
“This needs to be considered by the Bus Committee which will review the application. We await their recommendation,” she said.
Cape Times